Dietas sustentáveis em restaurantes universitários no Estado do Paraná

Abstract

The dominant food production-consumption model reflects consequences for human and planetary health. The current national scenario, like that of other countries, portrays the process of nutritional transition, determined by poor diet. While food chains widen the gap between production and consumption and reduce the diversity of food available to consumers, malnutrition caused by this production profile impacts non-nutritious diets and poses the main risk. in the global burden of disease. Corroborating these discussions arises the debate about sustainable diets. Sustainable diets are those with low environmental impact that contribute to food and nutritional security and to a healthy life for future generations. Sustainable diets are protective and respectful of biodiversity and ecosystems, culturally acceptable, economically accessible and fair, nutritionally adequate, safe and healthy while optimizing natural and human resources. This research aimed to analyze the food purchases of two Federal Public University Restaurants in the state of Paraná, from the perspective of sustainable diets, comparing a place that buys family farms with a place that does not. The specific objectives were to identify the sustainability of the menus offered in their nutritional, environmental, economic and social aspects, and to compare the sustainability of the menus of a university restaurant that buys from family farming, identified as RU1, with a university restaurant that do not buy, identified as RU2. The study was exploratory and descriptive. Guided by official documents from Federal Higher Education Institutions regarding the purchase of food and menus for University Restaurants and primary data such as interviews and questionnaires. The analyzes conducted from the perspective of sustainable diets indicate that in the nutritional and environmental dimensions, RU1, which makes purchases from family farming, is closer to the precepts of sustainable diets than RU2. RU1 maintains a higher frequency and variety of fruits and vegetables and a lower ratio of ultra-processed foods. In addition to presenting a menu with a lower average water footprint, RU1 also maintains a smaller distance in relation to the food miles of the acquired foodstuffs. As for the analysis of sustainable diets in the socioeconomic dimension, in the context of production, the menu of RU1 was also more sustainable than RU2. However, in the socioeconomic context of consumption, both places support similar data, the lack of knowledge of the diners regarding the origin of the food consumed and the lack of knowledge of what represents a sustainable menu were similar conditions in the studied university restaurants.